Saturday, June 20, 2009

It is obvious that many of these academics, architects and planners take the city's existence for granted. They see the city just as a sculpture. They take it's existence for granted and do not seem to understand that a city only exists because of it's people.If a city is pleasant to live in, functionnal, beautiful, economically successful and offers affordable accomodation people want, then people stay. The city grows and lives on.If a city is badly managed, unpleasant, offers low economic opportunities and unaffordable housing that does not meet the desires of it's population, then people will go and the city will die.In such a way, offering accomodation such as high rises that people do not want to live in, is in itself the most unsustainable policy any planner could have for a city, regardless of the environmental impact. If Sydney goes with those policies, people will inevitably move to where their needs can be met. In the past people have left Sydney for the Central Coast, now they are leaving NSW for other states. In an economy more and more global, the alternatives to Sydney are not just in Australia, but also overseas.